Vidalia Alderman Sabrina Doré said this week that she is discontinuing the family health insurance plan offered by the town.

She said she made the decision after criticism from members of the town administration and some residents.

Her town insurance will be cancelled effective January 1, 2018. Doré noted that because of open enrollment she could not gain coverage for herself and her family until that time.

Doré said the town’s cost for her health insurance was $18,739.26 annually. She said the town had previously approved health insurance costs of $252,363.667 for all employees for the 2017-18 fiscal year.

"I made the decision, after the criticism from both members of the Administration and some residents of the town, to discontinue the town's health insurance for my family. While the benefit is given to Aldermen under ordinances created well before my term in office, I do not want anyone to have the opinion that my involvement as an Alderman is costing the town unduly. It is now, and has always been, my goal to decrease the budget without sacrificing the services that the residents of the town have always enjoyed. If my selection of those benefits could even remotely give the impression that I am not 100% dedicated to the financial security of Vidalia, then I must remove that doubt.

“In my term, I have not traveled, accepted the offer of a city cell phone, accepted the Incentive Payment, nor asked for any reimbursement of any expenses. Any and all expenses that I incur in this public servant position are covered in the salary given to me, which is approximately $8,430 per year. I have never asked for additional monies nor stated that I am not compensated fairly. I did not run for this position for the money, nor the benefits. I ran for this position because I felt that I could use my knowledge and love for Vidalia to help secure its financial future for the generations to come.

"I sincerely hope that as an Administration, we can get past this issue that seems to have hung in the air for some time. Pointing fingers towards each other is not solving the issues that we face in Vidalia. Residents need to see a united front when they look at the bench in those meetings. We won't always agree 100% of the time in the methods to reach our goal, but I can assure you that we all have the same goal: to protect the financial security of the taxpayers of Vidalia. The Board should not and will not agree in every single matter brought before us; although we will in some. That's the reason you have a collective Board to begin with. Some of the greatest plans are hatched when a group of people comes together with different ideas and the same goal.

“That is what we are - a group of six individuals who all want what is best for Vidalia and all have ideas to help this town succeed. When we can learn to respect a difference of opinion and see it only as what it is and not a personal attack, we can begin the process of forming a cohesive team who will stop at nothing to achieve the goal."